Asian technology shares largely recovered on Wednesday amidst volatile trading, following a widespread global sell-off in the previous session.
European semiconductor stocks were generally stable, with some individual names edging higher.
The rebound comes after U.S. markets suffered severe declines, with tech stocks continuing a global sell-off that originated in Asian markets the day prior.
In South Korea, major chip giants led the charge. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd shares surged more than 9%, while SK Hynix Inc gained 2.7%. Both stocks had plunged over 12% in the previous trading day.
As key components of the KOSPI index, the gains from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix helped lift the benchmark index by more than 3%.
Other South Korean tech stocks showed mixed performance: Samsung SDI Co Ltd rose over 4%, and Seoul Semiconductor Co Ltd climbed 5%.
In Japan, the picture was varied. Semiconductor equipment maker Advantest Corp fell 0.51%, while SoftBank Group Corp rose 1.84%. Tokyo Electron Ltd declined by 3%.
Chinese technology shares also displayed a divergence. Tencent Holdings Ltd advanced 3.52%, Baidu Inc gained 2.2%, and Xiaomi Corp added 0.71%. In contrast, JD.com Inc fell 2.35%.
In U.S. pre-market trading, memory chip stocks showed strength. Micron Technology Inc was up 4.5% and SanDisk rose 3.4%, both attempting to recover from 13% plunges in the prior session. The DRAM ETF, which fell 14% in regular trading, was up 4.7% pre-market.
The European semiconductor sector was broadly steady with minor gains. STMicroelectronics NV rose 1.73%, ASML Holding NV gained 0.72%, Infineon Technologies AG added 0.88%, and BE Semiconductor Industries NV edged up 0.3%. ASM International NV was an outlier, falling 0.72%.
Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, suggested that recent checks on Asian supply chains and enterprise AI demand trends indicate no fundamental cracks in the industry. He views the sharp sell-off in South Korean tech stocks more as a technical correction following the KOSPI's near-doubling this year, rather than a signal of underlying weakness.
This rebound follows a brutal sell-off in U.S. markets, where tech stocks extended a global rout that began in Asia. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 2.2%, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped in tandem as investors sold off chip and AI-related stocks. Micron Technology and SanDisk both tumbled 13%, while Intel Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, and Qualcomm Inc all fell more than 5%.
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